


Canary

by Rocketman23



Series: Detroit Become Human drabbles [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Birds, Gen, Hank Is Grumpy Dad, connor likes small birds, kinda angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 20:09:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15469068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rocketman23/pseuds/Rocketman23
Summary: after visiting the scene of a homicide, a pet shop, Connor decides he likes birds and replays his memory of the one he saw at the pet shop.





	Canary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kumikoseph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kumikoseph/gifts).



> i honestly didnt know what to write, so i just slammed Connor and canaries together and Boom!  
> angsty fic!  
> also i was reading some of Kumikoseph's writing (if you havent read it go treat yo self!) and was inspired to write something about Connor haha  
> he's such a sensitive lil fluffball  
> hope you all enjoy!

Connor liked birds. Nearly as much as cats or dogs he would say. They were just so, oh what was the word? Small? No, that sounded incorrect, even as he outwardly voiced it, Hank sending a brief glance through the holographic computer screens. Connor was meant to be working. He did try, casting the small and chirping creature from his mind so he could focus on his task. He had an important job to do and one he took pride in completing.

Also Hank would threaten to take away Connor’s coin. Again. 

But even as he started typing out words he was used to using, the quietest of chirps would bring him from his bored typing and carry his gaze over to the window. A lone pigeon sat perched atop a branch, pruning its grey feathers and occasionally cooing.

Connor didn’t like pigeons. They were everywhere and always causing a mess. He replayed the memory of breaking into a deviant’s home base, only to discover a hundred or so pigeons swamping the floor. If Connor could distinguish between good and bad smells, he’d have said the place was filthy and stank of rot. Thankfully, Hank had supplied the words in a grumpy and coarse manner and Connor could only agree with him. As most people were oft to say, pigeons are the rats of the bird world.

However, the birds that Connor did like? He hadn’t known at the time what the little thing was called, for he and Hank were investigating another homicide at a pet store but it was covered in a vibrant shade of yellow, with white tipped wings and tail feathers. It reminded Connor of a sunny day and white fluffy clouds. He rather enjoyed the way it hopped from perch to perch, twittering away with its fellows and twisting its head to the side, one beady eye seeming to strike Connors very soul. At least that’s the phrasing he had heard Officer Cheng use before. Connor wasn’t entirely sure if androids had souls.

Upon further research, Connor found the little bird to be named ‘canary’. This research, of course, led to the perusing of different birds. No less colourful and noisy than the last. He particularly liked the smaller and colourful ones, like the canary he saw and also others like budgies or finches. They were…cute.

Completely neglecting his paperwork, Connor decided to playback the memory of the pet shop, to see if he could spot anymore clues and definitely not to look at the birds. It kinda struck him, as well, that all these wonderful birds, save for a few toppled cages that had opened and released a couple dozen of the canaries, were more or less confined to a cage. When Connor compared the freedom of the happily chirping Canaries that flitted all over the pet shop, much to Hanks displeasure, to the Canary he stared at so intently, he couldn’t help but feel the little bird chirped to be free like the others. Its restless hopping and peering eyes seeking for the same escape the others had wrought. It gave Connor a sinking and yet suffocating feeling.

He had also been like that. Stuck in a cage not of his own free will. Always looking through the bars and wondering, if only for a second, what being free would be like. It wasn’t what he expected. Like the freed canaries, he flitted to and fro around his environment, newly aware of all these things that had once never bothered him. It was confusing. The integration into human society. All the dropped formalities. The burning stares and murmured whispers of those still distrustful of deviants. 

It was… scary. Made more so by the onset of ‘emotions’, an entirely new and alien thing that Connor wasn’t designed for. As the android sent by Cyberlife, he wasn’t meant to care for the wellbeing of deviants. He wasn’t meant to choose any other option that might put his mission at danger. He wasn’t supposed to laugh at Hanks ‘dad jokes’, nor was he to grow attached to other life forms.

And yet he did.

In some way, Connor mulled as he continued to look through the memory of the pet shop, this was freedom. To just be himself. To spread his wings and think for himself what he might or might not like.

And yet, as his memory came to a shuddering halt, his LED turning to a spinning yellow and Hank gruffly asking Connor “why’re you staring off into space??” Connors thirium pump slowed. How could he forget? Making his way around the pet shop, looking for any evidence or clues to the victim’s death, Connor had come across a gut wrenching sight.

Laying still on the floor, red marring with yellow and its wing bent at an odd angle, Connor found a dead Canary. Dead on the floor like that, Connor surmised it had died quick and that its death was an accidental one. Yet, as Connor knelt by the broken bird and gently ran his fingers over its feathers a word came to mind.

“Fragile” Connor uttered softly, ending the memory as a single tear tracked its course down his face. Hanks heated stare and raging voice quieting instantly, as he stared confusedly at his son.

Small birds, it appeared, were very fragile.

**Author's Note:**

> heya!  
> if ya liked this fic please leave a kudos and comment!  
> if you have any requests that you liked me to write, please find me on tumblr (@talesbornofink)   
> (p.s. i'm on a break atm but hopefully i should be coming off it soon!)


End file.
